


quiet in the dark

by salamoonder



Series: bread, salt, wine [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Sickfic, Trans Vax'ildan (Critical Role)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:55:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28484955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamoonder/pseuds/salamoonder
Summary: It’s an innocuous enough request, but coming from Vax, who would rather break his ankle falling off the bookshelf he was trying to climb than ask for someone taller than him to reach the book he needed...well. It’s enough to melt every bit of concerned irritability freezing up Percy’s chest.
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vax'ildan/Vex'ahlia, Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Series: bread, salt, wine [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073270
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	quiet in the dark

“Home,” Percy calls from the door. It’s a habit now--one he’d mostly developed because he was so jumpy about living with other people himself. It functioned two ways; firstly as a warning, and secondly as a comfort. Warning: there’s another person in the house, don’t get startled. Comfort: there’s another person in the house. You’re not alone anymore.

He expects Vax to call back to him, but there’s nothing but silence. No tv on, no music, nothing. Percy drops his backpack, forcing himself not to hurry. It’s not as though anything’s  _ happened _ . He’s probably downstairs doing laundry, or...or something.

“Vax?” he calls as he comes down the hallway, and there’s a very tiny, snuffly sound in response. He puts his hand on the door to Vax’s room and it swings open, unlatched.

There are no lights on and the curtains are drawn against the weak light filtering in from the fall afternoon sun. There’s a whimper at the light that streams in behind Percy from the hallway, and he closes the door behind him quickly. “Sorry--sorry.”

“S’alright,” says Vax, half sitting up from where he’s lying in bed, only to close his eyes in pain.

“Did you work today?” asks Percy cautiously, hovering near the bed but coming no closer.

“God no,” says Vax dismissively, still struggling to sit up.

“Do you...need anything?”

“No,” says Vax, with less conviction.

“I can make tea.”

“Yes,  _ please _ .”

“Well, alright, then,” says Percy, torn between amusement and concern. He leaves the room, trying to slip out through as small an entrance as possible so as not to flood the room with light again. He finds something with mint in it--that’s supposed to help people sleep, right?--and sets the kettle on to boil. A cloud of worry settles over him. Vax will insist on working till he’s dead tired and barely able to stand. The fact that he’s home of his own accord now says more about how he’s feeling than Vax would ever admit verbally. He circles the kitchen, trying to think of something to do between now and when the kettle boils, but his mind keeps getting stuck in the same loops and when the whistling breaks through his thoughts it’s a welcome distraction.

“Vax, cover your eyes, I’m coming back in.”

Vax makes a soft, protesting noise, but when Percy opens the door he’s obediently turned his head against the pillow. Percy sets his mug on the nightstand and is about to leave the room when Vax shifts a bit and he catches sight of something under his shirt.

“Are you--are you still wearing…?”

“Don’t yell at me,” Vax moans. “I forgot to take it off, and then I was too  _ tired _ to take it off, and…” he trails off under Percy’s stare and throws one arm dramatically over his face as he pulls his head away from the pillow. “Help me?”

It’s an innocuous enough request, but coming from Vax, who would rather break his ankle falling off the bookshelf he was trying to climb than ask for someone taller than him to reach the book he needed...well. It’s enough to melt every bit of concerned irritability freezing up Percy’s chest. It feels almost too personal, and Percy wonders for a moment if Vax is feverish enough to forget quite where he is and who he’s speaking to.

“You don’t want to wait for Vex?” he asks cautiously, hoping Vax won’t read into any implications that he realizes belatedly could’ve been present.

Vax scowls. “Well, you’re the one who’s so bloody concerned, I’m sure it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“Alright,” says Percy, sufficiently cowed, and pulls the comforter back just enough to get at the edge of Vax’s shirt.

He flinches a little when Percy starts to pull it off and Percy freezes, scared he’s done something wrong, but Vax only says “Jesus, Freddie, your hands are like ice.”

“Sorry.” Percy keeps going, and Vax winces like he’s in pain when he starts to pull the shirt up over his shoulders and arms. “Sorry--sorry. Can you sit up a  _ little? _ ”

Vax doesn’t say anything but grips Percy’s forearm and uses it to haul himself somewhat upright, and Percy pulls his shirt the rest of the way off as quickly as he dares. “Are you okay?"

“Does it  _ look _ like I’m okay? I wouldn’t be lying in bed all day if I was, would I?”

“I just meant...never mind.”

They both lapse into silence as Percy tries to work out the best way to get Vax’s binder off, eventually opting for the undignified but simple option of tugging it straight up and over his head. He tries to avert his eyes but Vax doesn’t seem to care, immediately stretching catlike and blissful, eyes still closed, while Percy tosses the binder to the floor for lack of anything better to do with it.

“Do you want--” he starts to ask, but Vax shakes his head before he can finish.

“Just give me my shirt, please?”

“Sure.” Percy hands him his shirt back and he tugs it on before sinking back under the comforter with a long suffering sigh. It’s not even  _ his _ shirt--with the comforter pulled off Percy had realized it was one of Vex’s, a faded Indigo Girls tour tee with a barely legible song list on the back. Another unfortunate glimpse into exactly how low Vax feels right now, he notes, but he keeps quiet till Vax tugs at Percy’s belt loop in a clear invitation.

“If I get you sick, I’m sorry later, but I am literally too tired to be sorry now.”

Percy scrunches the comforter down to crawl in next to Vax, resisting the urge to check just how high his fever is. Heat seems to be radiating off of him, but it is freezing out...maybe Percy’s still just adjusting to the warmth inside.

“Don’t you want your tea?” he asks, trying not to sound hurt.

“Later when it cools down,” says Vax in an almost whisper.

“Alright.”

“When’s Vex home?”

Percy struggles for a second to extract his phone from his back pocket, holding it away from Vax so the bright of the screen doesn’t hurt him. “Mm..soonish? Couple hours.”

“Wake me then?”

“Of course.”

Vax turns his face into Percy’s shoulder and wraps an arm around his waist, letting out a contented sigh. Percy holds still, feeling as though a butterfly has landed on his shirt, not wanting to spook Vax into letting go. After a couple of tense minutes he starts stroking Vax’s hair off of his forehead, wincing at how warm he is. Vax makes a soft sound of appreciation and shifts a little closer.

Percy’s phone dings softly and he angles his head to glance down at it. Vex:  _ coming home early. _ No further explanation is forthcoming, and there doesn’t need to be. He’s a little surprised she’s lasted this long anyway, but the text looses the knot of anxiety and worry in his chest a little.

He drops a kiss on the crown of Vax’s head once he’s sure he’s asleep. “You’re going to be alright,” he says, more to reinforce it to himself than anything. “Your sister’s coming home, and you’re going to be alright.”


End file.
